Foreign minister of Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the Taliban could spread beyond the border of Pakistan reaching India and also Persian Gulf if they were not stopped. He said this while seeking more foreign aid to combat the terrorists.

Qureshi said to the media, “They (Islamic militants) have a global agenda, they have a regional agenda, they are not confined to Pakistan. They could go in to the (Persian) Gulf, they could go in to India, they can go anywhere.”

He also added that there is a collective interest and collective realization that this is not Pakistan’s problem only.

Qureshi asked for 2.5 billion dollars as emergency relief and for long-term reconstruction of the Swat valley and the surrounding region. Earlier the Government officials of Pakistan had estimated a figure of $1 billion in aid.

The country has earmarked Rs 50 billion for aid for the northwest in the 2009-10 budget.